Department of Plant Science

Department of Plant Science

The Pennsylvania Agronomic Education Society has provided a $50,000 gift to create a scholarship endowment that will support students in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences who have demonstrated financial need. First preference for the Pennsylvania Agronomic Education Society Trustee Scholarship will go to students who enroll in the Crop Production option of the plant sciences major.

Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences has honored four of its graduates with 2014 Outstanding Alumni Awards. Named Outstanding Alumni were N. Alan Bair, of Lancaster; Siree Chaiseri, of Bangkok, Thailand; and Calvin Ernst, of Meadville. Justin Runyon, of Bozeman, Montana, was named Outstanding Recent Alumnus, an award that honors alumni who have graduated in the last 10 years.

Iowa State University President Steven Leath, who graduated from the College of Agricultural Sciences, is among 21 Penn State alumni who were honored Oct. 8 for their outstanding professional accomplishments and given the lifelong title of Alumni Fellow, the highest award given by the Penn State Alumni Association.

Courtney Marie Norjen, a Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences major from Ellicott City, Md., is the recipient of the Outstanding Senior Award from Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. The award, sponsored by the College of Agricultural Sciences Alumni Society and the Coaly Society, honors the senior who best balances outstanding academics, extracurricular activities, work experience and communication skills.

Planting cover crops in rotation between cash crops -- widely agreed to be ecologically beneficial -- is even more valuable than previously thought, according to a team of agronomists, entomologists, agroecologists, horticulturists and biogeochemists from Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.

Growth in minority populations in the United States is providing opportunities for the specialty-crop industry on the East Coast to fill the rising demand created by ethnically diverse consumers. To help agricultural producers and others to tap into these markets, researchers and extension staff from four land-grant universities will hold a one-day workshop on March 3 in Valley Forge.

Students majoring in Turfgrass Science in the College of Agricultural Sciences will receive first consideration for a new Trustee Scholarship established by a pair of Penn State alumni. William F. and Diane Randolph, of Powell, Ohio, created an endowment to fund the M. Forest Randolph and William F. Randolph Trustee Scholarship, which will be awarded to a student in the college with demonstrated financial need.

Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences has honored three of its graduates with 2013 Outstanding Alumni Awards. The awards recognize alumni for their achievements and provide opportunities for recipients to interact with the college's faculty, students and other alumni. Recipients were Scott A. Burk, of Boalsburg; H. Louis Moore, of Linden Hall; and A. David Carroll Jr., of Berks County.

With support from a $5 million grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development, an international team led by Jonathan Lynch, professor of plant nutrition in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, will establish the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Climate-Resilient Beans. The project will employ novel techniques to accelerate breeding programs for common bean aimed at conferring traits that can increase yield under heat and drought stress.

A project spearheaded by scientists in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences and Uganda's Makarere University is helping African youths establish businesses and generate income. And these young people, in turn, are providing services that can help farmers improve dairy nutrition and increase milk production.

Athletes looking to maximize performance on the playing field sometimes seek footwear that provides the best traction. But it's important to balance the need for good traction with the risk of injury. Penn State's Center for Sports Surface Research has released the results of an extensive traction study that tested 30 types of athletic shoes on three types of turf playing surfaces.

"Trifecta" is a term usually associated with horse racing. But the Penn State turfgrass program hit a trifecta of sorts this year in the world of professional golf. Graduates of Penn State's turfgrass programs -- the largest turfgrass curriculum in the country -- will oversee the courses hosting all three major U.S. tournaments in 2013: